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Vol. 140 (2023): Our Past

Articles

Last wills and testaments of patients of the Hospital of the Holy Spirit in Rome in the 18th-19th centuries

DOI: https://doi.org/10.52204/np.2023.140.103-129  [Google Scholar]
Published: 2023-12-27

Abstract

The Order of the Holy Spirit, founded by Guido of Montperllier at the end of the 12th century, played a major role in the development of hospital manage-ment. The above-mentioned Order ran in Rome the largest Hospital of the Holy Spirit in Europe, was founded in 1198 by Pope Innocent III and became a model for other hospitals in the Christian world. This hospital performed two functions: a poorhouse for the underprivileged and an infirmary for the sick. In the mid-18th century, about a thousand patients were hospitalised at any one time.
The article discusses last wills and testaments written by the patients at the Hospital of the Holy Spirit in Rome. As a rule, testaments were drawn up by patients in old age or those in the face of serious illness. The hospital’s archivist in the presence of witnesses prepared the wills, and in his absence, it was a confessor or a priest that drew up the wills commending the soul to God. Testaments compiled in hospital followed a fixed conven-tion, referring both to the soul and body. The former was always at the centre. At the be-ginning of the formula, the author of the last will always asserted that, although severely ill in body, he was sound in mind, able to see and speak. Further, the testators also empha-sised that they were dedicating the soul to God, while the body was to be buried in a mod-est ceremony in the cemetery, usually a hospital cemetery.
At the end of the second decade of the 19th century, slightly more than one in three men drawing up the last will in a hospital was a villager, from non-Roman localities; only 15% of testators were the Romans. Wills varied greatly, some being very exten-sive, precise and signed by many witnesses, others laconic and perfunctory, made in haste. The poorer a patient was, the less he or she had to write down in a testamentary decree. Making wills in hospital caused fear and anxiety among families of the hospi-talised men, especially when there was no certainty that they would leave hospital. For this reason, women were reluctant to commit fathers, husbands and brothers to hospital. Charitable bequests were a natural feature of the acts of last wills, including those to the hospital in return for the Holy Mass celebrated for the soul of the testators after their death. Until the end of the 18th century, testaments were written entirely by hand, whereas from the beginning of the following century, printed blank forms with dotted lines were used for this reason, which included the date of the execution of the testament, the name of the sacristan writing the will, personal data and the profession of the sick, the ward name and bed number of the testator, at the presence of whom the last will was drawn up. The hospital bed served the role of the registry.

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